Working on further "Oprah's Book Club" reading: Iron Council by China Mieville. I'm enjoying it so far; I'm even planning on doing illustrations for it. I still don't really understand why it's gotten bad reviews from people on amazon and such. Maybe because the two central characters are homosexual or because of the socialist overtones. Some have complained it's pretentious, which is fine, I suppose, but no more pretentious than the Chronicles of Narnia, The Matrix, or Star Wars; which I feel are more pretentious because they portray one set of characters (and one set of morals) as completely good and completely right.

I never understood the bad reviews either, though I also tend to think that the gay revolutionary subplots didn't win Mieville too many new friends. As for the "book club" thing - I would not only watch, but probably also tape, any Oprah show where she got into any of the Mieville books - I'd love to see what she'd make out of High Cromlech or the Gengris. C'mon, Oprah - bring out The scar!

Finally - please post any inchman drawing you make on your website? I was thinking of statting them up for D&D, and good pics are always appreciated.

I never understood the bad reviews either, though I also tend to think that the gay revolutionary subplots didn't win Mieville too many new friends. As for the "book club" thing - I would not only watch, but probably also tape, any Oprah show where she got into any of the Mieville books - I'd love to see what she'd make out of High Cromlech or the Gengris. C'mon, Oprah - bring out The scar!

Finally - please post any inchman drawing you make on your website? I was thinking of statting them up for D&D, and good pics are always appreciated.

Inchmen are on the top of my list. Along with Toro's helmet, that poison gas golem and too many other things.

After checking out the review in the latest Dragon magazine, I picked up Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Very good story so far: imaginative, packed with weirdness, and flooded with setting. I'm really enjoying it.

Golden Fool by Robin Hobb's. It's the 2nd book in her 3rd trilogy. Great series actually. Start with The Farseer trilogy then Liveship Traders & lastly Tawny Man. I have to admit I zoomed thru the Farseer trilogy but I dragged a$$ getting into the Liveship Traders. I ended up pushing myself thru to 1/2 the 1st book simply b/;c of peer pressure. Usually if it doesn't grab me within the 1st 3 chapters, that's it for me. I'm glad my co-worker kept insisting me to keep going. We both agreed that you could read Farseer trilogy & then go to Tawny man but it's so much better if you read Liveship in between the 2.

When I'm done with this trilogy I'll be picking up the last 2 or 3 of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. LOVE THESE!

That's REALLY scary. My wife gave me a deluxe edition for Christmas and I'm halfway into it now (for approximately the 3rd time). Of course, with STAP underway, I guess it's not that big of a coincidence!

I finished Anansi Boys, and it turned out to have a nice amount of darkness and horror in it. I was afraid the whole book was going to be a bit witty and British and low-key, but I guess Neil Gaiman can't write anything without a freaky horror doll or a psychopathic menace from the dawn of time or something popping up somewhere. So I was satisfied.

Still reading The White Goddess. The dude has started to claim that he discovered the answer to the 666 number of the beast riddle through "poetic analepsis", which to me seems to be another word for "yeah, I made it up. With my imagination."

He claims that is what all scholars do, but they don't admit it, and says that because he ha admitted it he will now not be taken seriously by other scholars. He was right about that I guess.

Got 40 pages left on Perdido Street Station. This is one of the best endings to a book (so far...) I've encountered.

I can't wait til World War Z comes out in paperback.

World War Z is pretty darn amazing. It's going to be a movie at some point, and I hope that they decide to go with some of their casting from the audiobook (Henry Rollins from Black Flag as a mercenary, Mark Hammill from Star Wars as a soldier, Alan Alda from M*A*S*H as a government director guy, the guy that played Jesus in The Big Lebowski as the interview subject from Cuba).

(Small almost spoilers for Perdido)
Mieville breaks some of the rules by introducing new characters (well, practically new characters) at the very end of the book. On the one hand, it helps the narrative even if there are other ways to have done it, but on the other, there could have been other ideas to introduce these elements without feeling as rushed and tacked on.

I tend to read multiple books at once, so I finish (on average) about two books a week. Right now, I am reading:

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Magic: the Gathering - Time Spiral by Scott McGough
Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Codex by Douglas Preston

Trudging through Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin right now. For some reason, my interest in reading has been on a major decline since I read a book on the Crusades (it was a brutally slow read and can't think of the title or author at the moment).

There is a book called Werewolf about a guy that is several hundred years old that some fanatics have captured to try to recreate a formula for his were powers; is an interesting book where the evil of man is much worse than the werewolf. The Desden File book Fool Moon is a great werewolf story, I think there are five different types of werewolves in that one and Harry has to find if one is the murderer; hehe tuff job. I, of course, loved the first Howling story and Silver Bullet by Stephen King is a good tale to chill the blood. There are a few others I have, but these are my favorites.

Sort of trudging through the first book of the Dark Tower series by Steven King. My girlfriend loves these books but I just can't get into them. 6 more to go though.

On the horizon is Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko (and the sequels when they come out), the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin, and finishing up the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (started it awhile ago and for some reason never finished the 4th and 5th books).

I am really looking forward to Nightwatch since I love the movie. (highest grossing Russian films ever, I think. I would recommend it.) From what I read though, the movie only covers the first division of the first book, so I don't know how they will treat the 2nd and 3rd movies related to the books.

Twilight in the Desert - about the Oil Business in Saudi Arabia
Holy Cow - the autobiographical account of an expatriate wife in India
Carnage and Culture - a history of some of histories greatest battles and how they shaped culture

While waiting for the next Song of Ice and Fire book, I have borrowed Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. I think this is very good high fantasy, and I enjoy the way he writes. The bad thing after reading this and G. G. Martin, the regular D&D books seems so medicore.

Murakami's Underground was amazing. All real interviews with survivors from the Aum Shinrichyo (sp?) lead attack on the Tokyo subway system with Sarin gas. After each interview, Murakami sent a manuscript to each of the survivors so that they could evaluate what was written, edit out parts that they didn't want revealed about themselves or clarify points that may have been lost in the initial interview. What results is a series of poignant accounts of normal human beings finding themselves amidst the absurd and inhuman. In the postscript, Murakami also interviews members of Aum about their experiences in the cult and their feelings about the attack.

Since the survivors all had editorial control over what was published, there is no exploitation or media abuse (Murakami always struck me as a decent sort and this proves it). It's amazing to see who stopped to help others (and often wound up getting themselves in worse condition because of it) and who said,"It's someone else's problem" and tried to go on with their day. It kind of brought me up short to consider whether I would stop to help in that kind of situation or not. Especially since living in New York, where ignoring your fellow human beings is a required "skill".